Why Is The PlayStation 4 Consistently Dominating The Xbox One In Sales?

Since the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One last November, there have of course been plenty of comparisons between the two consoles, especially when talking about sales. Since that time, PlayStation 4 has outsold the competition by a large margin, with the gap being much larger than initially expected prior to launch.

One would have thought that Microsoft had a major lead after the last generation being Microsoft’s pretty much from the start. The PlayStation 3 faltered early and managed to climb back into the race later in the console’s life, but people still remember the outright domination of the Xbox 360 for a long time. However, that has not come to pass with the Xbox One thus far, with the PlayStation 4 easily dominating the sales market.

BGR has taken an in depth look at why this massive turnaround has occurred to start the generation. They do discuss how the price factor has been one of the reasons why Sony is winning the generation thus far, and that Microsoft unbundling the Kinect to compete with the same price was vital. However, they believe that there is an element that is more important at work. They pull from an interview with Nicky Yates, Director of Communications at Buzz Radar, who believes that the marketing strategy for Sony has been much better than Microsoft thus far.

“Gaming is inherently social and Sony is being smart by empowering their users and soliciting feedback via social channels. While the games will always be the main driver, smart social integration and marketing raises the PS4’s prominence. The more we talk about it, the more people want to be on that platform.”

This does not mean strictly social media, as Sony has spent a good bit more money on their marketing than has Microsoft thus far. Even with platforms like E3 2013, they managed to both promote their upcoming console and slam Microsoft’s original approach to the Xbox One with DRM.

Xbox One saw a 14% growth in the last week while the PlayStation 4 has fallen 1%

In an interview with Edge Magazine, Microsoft’s Phil Harrison says he believes that the gap will be narrowed once the Xbox One is available in more countries, as the PlayStation outnumbers it territory wise thus far.

“Hats off to Sony, they’ve had a great start; they have been in more countries and – to date, at least – at a lower price. We have announced a new Xbox One at a lower price; we go to 29 new countries starting in September.”

BGR does bring up some recent sales figures, courtesy of VGChartz, which aren’t always completely reliable, that say the Xbox One saw a 14% growth in the last week while the PlayStation 4 has fallen 1%. However, that 14% growth is still only at 71,311, while the 1% drop puts Sony’s numbers at 98,450 for the week.

The Xbox One is certainly doing better since the unbundling of the Kinect, but Sony is still crushing the competition so far this generation. The Wii U is even in the mix with much better sales since the release of Mario Kart 8. However, with that releasing a year prior, it’s a little hard to compare it quite yet. Do you think the Xbox One can turn it around quickly or do you see them trailing for most of this generation? Let us know how you feel below.